Amazing story from Marc Haynes about meeting Roger Moore as a 7-year-old in 1983.

(This tweet I’m linking to has screenshots of Haynes’s post on Facebook; here’s the same story in text copied and pasted into a forum, without attribution. Have I ever complained about how much I dislike Facebook?)

Once you start thinking about the implications of an AI-driven
device that can both see and hear you, it becomes obvious just
how primitive these devices still are. I want a C–3PO, not a
talking camera fixed on my dresser that tells me if my socks and
shirt match.

Now that I think about it, what I really want is HAL. Think about it: HAL 9000 is the platonic ideal of these voice-driven assistants. He understands you perfectly, every time; he answers immediately; he can see not just hear; and he’s available throughout your home/spaceship. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark were amazingly prescient about where AI and human-computer interfaces were heading. They were just too optimistic about how soon we’d get there.

The typography and semiotics of Alien are fascinating, and now you can have them on your keyboard. The G20 Semiotic Keycap Set from Signature Plastics embodies almost all of Rob Cobb's design work for the movie, right down to the references to Hindu mysticism from the briefly-glimpsed self-destruction console keyboard. (more…)

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has started a rheumatoid arthritis study using
Apple Inc.’s ResearchKit, marking the first time a drugmaker has
used the health system for the iPhone to conduct clinical
research.

Glaxo wants to record the mobility of 300 participants over three
months and will also ask the patients to input both physical and
emotional symptoms, such as pain and mood. The app Glaxo created
from ResearchKit comes with a guided wrist exercise that uses the
phone’s sensors to record motion, giving the drugmaker a
standardized measurement across all users. The company will use
the results to help design better clinical trials.

I’m curious if they’ll supply participants with loaner iPhones. Or will they only choose participants who already have iPhones?